My grandfather was a songwriter - he entered a song for the Irish National Anthem. It was - according to him, "the best song that never won." My uncle Sean from Mitchelstown in Co. Cork was also a songwriter. He was still recording CD’s in his 80’s.

I also write songs. - I stopped writing in 1985. I’d worked in heavy industry and was then in a factory, and so had become an endangered species, once the "economic miracle" hit the town.

The next Eighteen years were all about survival - no time for fanciful persuits such as song writing.

In 2003 - one morning, I was sitting in the kitchen, and as if a switch had been thrown, a song came. I wrote it down and made a note of the chords. Another week later another song came, and so it continued. I’d started writing again. I had no idea why and the strangest thing was, I picked up where I’d left off in 1985. It was as if somewhere inside the songs had been continuing as if awaiting a time when I might be able to write them down.